Professor Asha Banu Soletti
IAS Open Programme
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Dr Asha Banu Soletti is Professor at the Centre for Health and Mental Health, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her academic work is situated at the intersection of Public Health and Mental Health, with a sustained focus on the social determinants of health, structural inequities, and community-based, social justice–oriented approaches to care. She teaches postgraduate courses in Public Health and Mental Health, integrating interdisciplinary scholarship, reflective inquiry, and field-based praxis.
She was awarded the Linnaeus-Palme Fellowship in 2012 and served as Visiting Faculty at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She has also been a Visiting Professor at the School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University under the International Visiting Scholar Scheme, 2025.
Her research foregrounds the social and structural determinants of health, particularly among marginalized and tribal communities. She has extensive experience in designing and co-constructing community-led, contextually grounded public health interventions in both rural and urban settings. She currently leads Pragati: Integrated Rural Health and Development Project, a longitudinal, community-engaged initiative working with Warli and Katkari tribal communities to address health and nutrition, Education and skills, livelihoods through integrated and participatory models.
Dr Soletti’s work reflects a sustained commitment to institution-building, interdisciplinary engagement, and the advancement of community-informed frameworks that bridge scholarship, policy, and practice in health and mental health.
During their IAS Fellowship, Professor Soletti will be collaborating with Professor Mike Wilson from the School of Design and Creative Arts.